We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rodney Roldan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rodney, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Developing my confidence and self-esteem has been a challenge for me over the years and is ongoing. I was shy as a child for the most part but slowly came out of my shell in my teenage years. I joined the Navy after high school and was introduced to a whole new world outside of Manhattan, New York where I was born and raised. After serving nine years, I began studying acting and went into the field not knowing what to expect, while stationed in Norfolk, Virginia. I learned firsthand about some of the challenges in the field such as what is legitimate and what isn’t, or who is helping me develop as an artist or taking advantage. Although what I experienced at times made me like and dislike the field, I realized my perspective or how I saw myself played a huge part in my views and how I dealt with situations around me. In every industry there are going to be those that help the industry and those that don’t, however how that affects an individual comes down to what is allowed in ones space.
After a few years in Virginia, I moved back to New York City to continue my craft and traveled to other areas such as Los Angeles, North Carolina, and Texas, working on various projects. I grew to love the industry as I learned a lot more about myself and how to embrace who I am within the entertainment world that continued to be a challenging endeavor. As an actor, you are often faced with challenging roles that force you to embrace aspects of the character that you don’t normally encounter. When studying a role, I try to find parts of myself that exist in that world whether it’s a script for a stage or film production. This approach towards my craft has helped me develop the confidence and self-esteem I have today. Something else that has also helped me is overcoming challenges within the industry as well, such as not landing roles or finding difficulty in playing certain characters. There were times where I wanted to just walk away from certain projects, however a part of me pulls me back in and embraces the challenge. I often discover parts of myself that I didn’t know existed when I hold my ground in challenging situations.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am an actor and documentary filmmaker and a member of both professional acting unions; Screen Actors Guild-American Federation for Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and Actors Equity Association (AEA). Since I began my acting and filmmaking career, I have worked several film, television, commercial, and stage productions that include, Imperium (2016), Fatal Attraction (2022-2023), Storm of Suspicion (2023), The Wire (2006), A Gifted Man (2011), and the stage productions’ M*A*S*H (2006), and Ghetto Babylon (2013).
In 2015 I began working on a World War II documentary project, which sparked my interest in writing, narrating, and directing documentaries. Since then, I worked on several projects to include most recently, ‘Country and Courage, which is a feature-length documentary that looks at the history of Veteran’s Day, the experiences of U.S. Army veterans, veteran programs, and the works of William Shakespeare in relation to the mindset and trauma experienced by soldiers. I really enjoyed working on this project in that it not only opened me up to the issues around PTSD that many experience, but also made me realize that I also experienced some of the same trauma symptoms.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back at my journey, I think three things that kept me going in pursuing my dream were being open to new experiences, resilience, and commitment to my craft. If I was to offer advice for aspiring artists in the field it would be to never let anyone place their creativity in a box, produce your own work, and understand that sacrifices need to be made. These are changing times in our society and the answer to a lot of the problems in society comes from what we show our audiences through art. Art cannot exist without creativity having free rein. If you are going to produce your own work, have patience and take the time to live in each moment of the process. At the end you learn to appreciate the finished product. With regards to sacrifice, understand that there will be a lot made in this career field, such as finances, time with family and friends, and work commitments. It is crucial to balance what’s important to you.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
There will always be challenges in this field depending on the perspective you take or the realization you have in terms of what is the most important. One challenge that I am facing is coming up with projects or diving into current issues that affect society. When I received feedback from the last documentary I produced as both a video and podcast, I realized the effect it had on some individuals who learned the importance and sacrifices made by those in the service. With this knowledge I have been looking to bring attention to issues in society such as child trafficking. The challenge is telling that story in a way that is both unique and impactful. One way that I have been working to overcome the challenge is putting myself as a listener or viewer and telling myself what it is I want to hear and learn about this issue and what will make me get involved.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.facebook.com/RodneyRoldanSAGAFTRA
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rodneymroldan
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rodney.roldan.5
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/rodneyroldan-5900831a/
- Other: IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1956452/
Country and Courage Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0o18l5z24ON0HMc5veUuZI
Image Credits
Veterans Administration Photoshoot – Peoples Television Storm of Suspicion (2023) – Jupiter Entertainment Fatal Attraction (2023) – Jupiter Entertainment M*A*S*H (2006) – Little Theater of Norfolk Country and Courage Podcast – Rodney Roldan
